Three years ago I was pretty lost.

I remember the exact moment too, when I realized it, when I realized something needed to change.

I was sitting in a dark, cold dorm room in Manchester, New Hampshire with no idea what I was doing. I always had an idea that I wanted to do sports journalism, but I think I was too scared to fully pursue it.

I was honestly scared out of my mind to even go to college. I had no desire to leave home, to leave my friends, to leave my family. So I just picked the place that felt the most like home, a place that had some high school friends and a place that was close enough that I could drive home whenever I wanted.

But that night in Manchester I realized what I needed to do — I had to leave. I didn’t know where or how I was going to do it, but I had to pursue the dream, and I couldn’t do it there.

So that’s just what I did, and that very weekend I was submitting applications to transfer to a handful of schools, but I kind of always knew where I was going. It was the place I should have picked eight months earlier — Quinnipiac.

I can confidently say now, that decision to transfer to Quinnipiac was single handedly the best — and most important — decision I have ever made in my life. I don’t know how often you get to make truly life changing decisions in life, but I’m happy to say I made the right choice three years ago.

But just transferring to Quinnipiac didn’t fix everything, and to be honest I had my doubts. As a transfer student the university usually has you arrive on campus four days before the rest of the school, and without much to do. So I sat in my dorm up in York Hill, once again, by myself.

I knew I needed to find a home. A place I could go to and find my people, in a sense. The first couple weeks went by and I learned pretty quickly that I knew I found my home.

The Quinnipiac Chronicle.

But we all know that The Chronicle is 12 pages of paper. It’s the people that made it a home, a place where, for the first time in a long time, I felt like I was home.

It was former Sports Editor Cameron Levasseur who took me down to Tampa for a once in a lifetime experience, covering the men’s hockey team win the 2023 National Championship. I’m going to be honest, I was way in over my head down there, I was in a room full of pros and I really only had written game stories up until that point. But Cam had trust in me, for some reason, and I like to think we did some pretty good work in the biggest moment this paper has ever covered.

That whole weekend was a blur, and I’ll spare the details at the risk of getting another student conduct meeting, but if it taught me anything, it was that there is no better feeling than covering a game, a team and its players on the biggest stage. It’s a high I’m still chasing today, and everyday I work to try and make those games on the biggest stages, my future career.

It was also former Sports Editor Ethan Hurwitz, who quite literally, gave me a home. I’ll forever be grateful for everything he taught me, and to aspire to have someone to one day be as good as — even if I took his spot in Tampa.

It was former Managing Editor Benjamin Yeargin who I shadowed to cover my first game. It was also Ben who I took over for last spring. To be honest I was wary of taking the role, afterall writing sports is what I love to do, and I always thought I would take over the sports section from Cam and Ethan.

But after everything this paper has given me, both professionally and personally, it felt only right that I tried to repay that debt. I don’t know if I did the job the same justice that Ben did, and I truly don’t know where this paper would be without Editor-in-Chief Alexandra Martinakova — who I have no doubt will continue to make this paper better tomorrow than it was yesterday — but I like to think I played my small part in making this paper better.

I guess all of this was just to say that I left Saint Anselm College to chase a dream. A dream I’m still chasing today, but The Chronicle and all the people that fill the pages of it have helped me get a few steps closer.

I don’t know when I’ll achieve the dream I set out for three years ago, but I know when I do, this place will be the reason why.